plateaus and revolutions

One of my goals for 2012 was to lose 1 pound a month which would mean by the end of the year I would be 12 pounds lighter.  I was confident that I had found a weight loss goal that I could finally keep.  If I shed those 12 pounds, I would be at the weight before I married Tony.

I've discovered that weight is a tricky thing for me these days.  For example, I have been the same weight, on the same plateau for more months than I can remember.  The same exact plateau that I've been on for the past year is the same exact plateau that I was on for about a year before I got pregnant.  Weird huh?  It's like my body has the magnetic attraction to that plateau number.  Even if I gained a pound or two when traveling and then dropped a pound or two post travel, I would settle on that same number.  By the way, if you think I can fit into all of my pre-pregnancy clothes just because I am the same weight, you, like I, would be sadly mistaken.

Anyway, that plateau was a mystery to me.  I couldn't escape it.

Until now!

I have now not only blasted through that plateau, but have finally reached my weight loss goal for the year.  SIX (yes, 6!) pounds in the past ten days.  So what if I lost all 6 pounds in a week instead of a pound a month like I originally envisioned?  I'll take it.

How have I done it you ask?  Exercise and eating right a la Jillian Michael's Body Revolution program.  I'm not ashamed to say that I am a big Jillian fan.  Sure, she can be over the top, but have you listened to her podcasts?  Lots of great information and she has amazing guests like Dr. Van Hurley a leading endocrinologist.

Anyway, back to my body revolution...

The first week is a "kick start" week and you work out twice a day - morning and night - for 30 minutes.  And she has a great meal plan with very healthy meals - total of 1200 calories a day.  The meals she has work well with my diabetes prevention goals and are generally extremely healthy (there's a bit more red meat than I'm used to, but other than that, it's all perfect for me).

And even better, Tony's been doing the program with me.  He has to be the most supportive person I've ever met.  He HATES working out indoors and especially while watching a DVD on TV.  But he's been doing about 85% of my workouts with me.  And he does the cooking - follows the recipes (another thing he dislikes a great deal) and weighing my 3-4 ounces of meat.

Tony hasn't given up his daily run in the mountains so sometimes he works out 3 times a day.  No wonder he's lost almost 9 pounds.  He readily admits at being pleasantly surprised by the program and the meals and he said he thinks we FINALLY found something that works for both of us.  After we reach our goals, we feel we can modify the caloric intake and it will be a lifestyle for us.

Yes, I've taken the "before" photos.  I've even thought about following Fat Cyclist's lead and post my actual weight at the end of posts, but I'm not quite there.  The words of my friend Greg keep ringing through my head of not leaving a paper trail.

But for now, here are my 2012 stats:

Coke Zero Free:  12 days
Weight Loss:  6 pounds
Books read:  6 (goal is 1 a month)
Be Social once a month:  6 months and going strong (but how sad is that goal?  Family does not count...)

So good-bye plateau and hello revolution.  It's about time!

hikoki

My brother Brian is staying with us for a bit.  He recently relocated to Utah from Hawaii and will be with us until he gets settled (I know right?  Why couldn't it have been the other way around?  I'd LOVE to relocate to Hawaii).

Ryan Katsuo Smart is named after my brother Brian Katsuo.  This is the first time they have met and for Ryan, it was fascination, admiration and love at first...kick.  Brian started playing soccer with Ryan out in the back yard and since that moment, Ryan LOVES to follow Brian around the house.   The above picture is Ryan wearing Brian's sunglasses.  He just loves to do whatever Brian does.  It's really quite cute.

Among the many things that Brian can do amazingly well is speak Japanese.  He's been speaking a bit of Japanese to Ryan here and there like arigato (thank you) which, let's face it, would be great if any kid would say thank you more.

The word "airplane" in Japanese is hikoki (he cokee) but you hold out the 'co' before the 'kee'.  It's a pretty cool sounding word and since Ryan LOVES airplanes, Brian was trying to teach it to him.  But somehow (somehow?!) Ryan got confused and started calling BRIAN "hikoki".  Sometimes he would say "Hi Koki", sometimes just "koki" but now he's settled back to the regular hikoki.

The above picture is a bit blurry, but I still love it - whether they're playing soccer, ball or just hanging out watching TV, they are two of a kind.

p.s.  still on the wagon - SIXTEEN days Coke Zero free!

my addiction

Hello.  My name is Natalie and I am a Coke Zero addict.  In fact, I've been an addict for a little over 4 years now.

It all began when I started traveling for work 4 years ago.  And yes, I've been traveling for work for a lot longer than that, but my previous job only required me to travel from either the Bay Area to Reno or Salt Lake to Reno - wherever I happened to be living at the time (which wasn't always clear).

Now I travel to the east coast and couple that with my insomnia, well, it's a bad combination.  But nothing that my trusty Coke Zero couldn't help me get through.

I don't have much of a history with soda.  Growing up, we only had soda when we had pizza which was a pretty rare (and fun!) occasion.  But now?  A Coke Zero a day keeps the fuzzy head awake.

For a while now, I've been wanting to kick the Coke Zero habit.  I knew it wasn't good for me.  My new best friend Jillian would always tell me how bad it was for me.  And it certainly wasn't doing anything to help my insomnia.

When we were filling out our initial adoption papers, it asked if we had any addictions.  I wrote down Coke Zero.  I'm sure my social worker thought I was a bit nuts, but it really did bother me that I couldn't kick the habit.  I felt like I wasn't in control.  Sure, I could go a day or even two without one, but I started getting cranky by day three.

So with that, I am proud to say, I am Coke Zero free since the last day of my last trip:  June 10th.  The real test will begin on July 11th - when I fly to Atlanta for my next tradeshow. 

But for now, it's TEN days and counting...

just catching up on the news

Ryan's been fascinated with babies lately.  As if he's not one.  If he sees any other baby that is even a day younger than himself, he will point and say "baby!"

But if I try to pick that child up, he suddenly becomes the baby and yells "my momma" and crawls into my arms.  In fact, he's been VERY clingy since I returned home from my last trip 2 weeks ago and I'm not exactly sure what to do about it.  There's a mixture of guilt from traveling, love when he wants to cuddle with me and annoyance when he won't leave my side for literally a second.  What's a mom to do with that?



Yesterday a catalog came in the mail with baby supplies so this morning while Ryan was eating his blueberry waffle, I started flipping through it. The babies in the catalog caught Ryan's eye and he started saying in a very excited voice, "baby! baby! baby!"

So I gave the catalog to him and he read and read.  And everytime he saw a picture of a baby, he'd say "baby!" which, by the way, was about 10 times per page.

adoption update

I guess I never really talked about how we decided to adopt a special needs child from China.  And actually, I'm not exactly sure when we made that decision.  For me, I think I've always known that a special needs child was the right avenue.  As we researched different possibilities and opportunities, we just kept coming back to special needs and to China.  In fact, everytime I would read a story, see a picture or watch a video about a special needs child being adopted from China, I couldn't help crying.  Sometimes weeping.

We know quite a few people who have adopted from China and I look at their children and their families and it just feels right to me.

Even though we weren't the ahem, ideal couple for a birth mom to select to parent her precious child, we felt we wanted to bring a child into our home who REALLY needed us i.e. was living in an orphanage and whose chances were less likely to be adopted.

We have enough experience with the beautiful children in Peru to know that we could fall in love with a child who wasn't biologically our own and who was older than an infant.  And yes, if I could bring any or all of those Peruvian children here, I would, but Peru is just really difficult to adopt from.

Back to our Chinese adoption, we have an agency (CCAI) that so far, I really love working with.  They've already sent us TWO child referrals.

The hardest thing in this adoption process thus far is "passing" on a child.  Taking a look at the darling photos, reading the file, talking about it, praying about it and then deciding, No.  That child is not the one.  One of those children has since been adopted, but the other one is still on the waiting list.  And that breaks my heart.  Absolutely breaks my heart.

When I bought my home almost ten years ago, I walked through the doors and knew in an instant that it was the house for me.  When Tony and I went to animal shelter after animal shelter searching for a dog for us, we knew instantly that Abby was the dog for us.  It didn't mean that we didn't see a lot of fabulous other houses or dogs.  It just meant they weren't the right one for us.

I keep telling myself that if I felt that way about a house or a dog, surely I will know when I see the right child for us. 

Sometimes I'm a bit overwhelmed at the prospect of bringing in a toddler from another country with potential special needs and unknown issues.  There is an unending list of things to worry about beginning with the health and ending (actually, I don't know if there IS an end to the worries) with attachment to our family and Ryan, how it affects Ryan in general, communication since we don't speak Chinese and the list goes on and on.

But then I take a deep breath and remember the peace I've felt at all the critical times when we've thought and prayed about this decision.

The scary thing is that I am fully aware that the peace that I've felt about our decisions does not mean that it will be easy.  It does not mean that everything will be picture perfect.  It does not mean that we will have a problem free adoption or family.

But I do believe we're doing the right thing.  At least for us.

a rambling post about coming home

I was determined not to write another post about traveling.  Honestly, I was just tired of being tired of traveling and I couldn't bring myself to write about it.  So that's why I haven't written anything lately.  Because I've been traveling.  And I couldn't think about much else to write about because I was so dang lonely in my company apartment in High Point, North Carolina all by myself last weekend.  Yes, weekend.

So instead of writing about traveling, I decided to write about sheets.  You see, I'm a sucker for clean sheets.  Back when I was single, I would always change my sheets when I went on a trip so I could come home and sleep in my own bed, in my own sheets which were always fresh and clean.  Even after two week trips, they would miraculously hold that freshly laundered smell.

One of the great benefits of working in the wholesale business is us wholesale people sell to other wholesale people at wholesale prices.  So when I go to the New York Gift Fair, I could buy fancy wares at wholesale prices (well, back when I had money I could!).  Most of the time it was something nice for my mom or sisters, but once in a while I would splurge.  REALLY splurge.

One such splurge was on sheets.  I probably shouldn't name names, but Peacock Alley are my favorite sheets.  They feel like butter to me.  Soft butter.  And I may or may not have 3 sets of them.

Shortly after Tony and I got married, I found myself in a bit of a conundrum.  Since Tony would be sleeping in my bed while I was away, how would I come home to clean sheets unless I asked Tony to change them on the day I came home?  That seemed a bit demanding and high maintenance which is strictly against my code.

I can't even remember how I mentioned it, but I'm sure it was in a very sly manner and not demanding at all, but I shared my love of clean sheets with Tony and behold....I have had clean sheets EVERY time I have come home from a trip.  I think the only time I haven't come home to clean sheets is on that aforementioned one-day trip to Las Vegas.

What a husband huh?

And did I mention that he does 98% of the laundry anyway? 

Well, to top things off, a few weeks ago I returned home in the evening on Saturday, May 12th - the evening before Mother's Day. In addition to clean sheets, I now have something else upon which to recline horizontally.

See that lovely hammock?  One of the best Mother's Days gifts ever.

Actually, I'm not even sure if I've shown our new deck.  Lovely don't you think?  And that picture of the mountains at the beginning of this post?  That would be our view to the left.  To the right would be the valley.  Yep.  It's that great.

So if you happen to drop by and we don't answer our door, we're probably out back.